This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Police issue 1,735 HOV tickets during Pan Ams

Police also issued 2,000 tickets for other Highway Traffic Act violations on the 1,600 kilometre Games Route Network from June 29 to July 26.

“When you look at the number of charges itself, they’re not excessive,” said Staff-Sgt. Devin Kealey. “Basically just over 100 tickets per day.”

Fines for HOV violations range from $85 on Toronto’s highways to $110 on provincial roads, but Kealey could not give a total dollar amount for the fines as the data was not broken down by jurisdiction.

In all, Kealey said the Integrated Security Unit reached its goal of providing a safe, quick, reliable network for the Games.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

“There were no athletes, for example, that didn’t get to compete for a gold medal because they were caught up in traffic,” he said, adding there were no serious or fatal collisions either.

“If you had listened to what people were talking about on talk radio and social media at the beginning of the Games you would have thought our city was not going to get anywhere during that time frame and obviously that wasn’t the case.”

The lanes remain until Aug. 18, but the restrictions have been loosened allowing drivers with just one extra passenger use of the 235 kilometres of temporary lanes.

“We’re hoping the public will again step up and make sure that the Parapan Games can keep moving, and we can keep the region moving.”

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

The Parapan Am Games run Aug. 7 to 15.

Originally the police planned to release numbers only after the Parapan Am Games, but increased media attention spurred Thursday’s release.

“For example, our R.I.D.E. program at Christmas time, there’s usually periodic releases of information just to give everyone an idea of where it’s at,” Kealey said. “We’re not normally putting out daily news releases on what the stats were on the night before.”

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com